Greenwich First selectman, Peter Tesei, spoke at the Greenwich Police press conference about the Greenwich High School's locked down at the Police Headquarters at Greenwich, Conn., Thursday, April11, 2013. Behind Tesei, is Selectman Drew Maruzllo, left, Greenwich Superintendent of Schools William McKersie, and Selectman David Theis are listening. less

Greenwich First selectman, Peter Tesei, spoke at the Greenwich Police press conference about the Greenwich High School's locked down at the Police Headquarters at Greenwich, Conn., Thursday, April11, 2013. ... more

William McKersie, Greenwich Superintendent of Schools, speaks at the Greenwich Police press conference about the Greenwich High School's locked down at the Police Headquarters while Selectman Drew Marzullo listens at Greenwich, Conn., Thursday, April11, 2013. less

William McKersie, Greenwich Superintendent of Schools, speaks at the Greenwich Police press conference about the Greenwich High School's locked down at the Police Headquarters while Selectman Drew Marzullo ... more

From left, Greenwich First Selectman Peter Tesei; Selectman Drew Marzullo; Greenwich Police Chief James Heavey; speaking and Greenwich Superintendent of Schools, William McKersie; at Greenwich Police press conference about the Greenwich High School's locked down at the Police Headquarters at Greenwich, Conn., Thursday, April11, 2013. less

A classroom in Cantor House at Greenwich High School in Greenwich, Conn., is barricaded Thursday, April 11, 2013. The photograph was taken by a student in the classroom.

A classroom in Cantor House at Greenwich High School in Greenwich, Conn., is barricaded Thursday, April 11, 2013. The photograph was taken by a student in the classroom.

Photo: Contributed Photo

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Greenwich High lockdown frighteningly familiar

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GREENWICH -- Just an hour away from Newtown, a hauntingly familiar scene of heavily armed police in tactical gear, classroom doors barricaded with desks and sobbing students unfolded Thursday at Greenwich High School after authorities responded to a threat of a youth with a gun that sent the campus into a lockdown.

Gianfranco Romero, 19, of 168 N. Water St. in Byram, was charged with breach of peace by police, who did not recover a weapon at the Hillside Road campus.

No one was harmed during the lockdown, which many of the 2,800 students chronicled in real time via Twitter and text message.

The scene in Greenwich marked at least the fourth time a school in Fairfield County has been thrown into a panic by the threat of gun violence or police activity in the wake of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting on Dec. 14.

The first threat came on Jan. 8 at Wooster Middle School in Stratford, when four men went to the wooded area behind the school to try out the BB and pellet guns they had recently purchased. For 30 minutes, the school went into lockdown and students and teachers huddled in corners until police took the four men into custody.

Then, on April 2, two students at Weston High School walked into the facility's parking lot, pulled a pellet gun out of a car, and pointed it at the school -- prompting their arrest on reckless endangerment charges.

In Greenwich, Thursday's incident at the high school also caused a major gridlock along East Putnam Avenue as concerned parents rushed to the school.

"If Newtown hadn't happened, you wouldn't panic the way we panicked," said Monique Miculcy, 50, holding back tears as she waited for her son, Kyle Miculcy, a freshman at Greenwich High, to emerge from the school on Thursday.

Multiple sources characterized Romero as a known quantity to local law enforcement officers, who said witnesses told them the suspect intimated to two fellow Greenwich High students that he had a firearm in his book bag and planned to use it to shoot people in another state.

Last November, Romero was arrested for third-degree assault and disorderly conduct stemming from a domestic dispute.

Gonzales said she dated Romero, whom police described as uncooperative, last school year but broke off the relationship.

"He was just kind of creepy and obsessive at times," Gonzales said. "He was kind of stalkerish."

"They received a report of a student who may have had a weapon that they brought to school," Tesei said. "Nothing materialized. Nonetheless, it was a very serious situation."

Educators credited Carlos Franco, a Greenwich cop assigned to GHS as its full-time school resource officer, as being instrumental in quickly identifying and helping to detain the suspect.

"To try to find the student who reported it that fast and then find several students who may have been involved in a building that size is spectacular," Schools Superintendent William McKersie said during an afternoon news conference.